General purpose scissors are normally used only intermittently by members of the public at large. In certain business and industrial environments however scissors are used on virtually a continuous basis. Barbers, for example, will often spend several hours a day holding and operating scissors. Some industrial workers, such are those employed in textile plants and wire mills, also hold and operate scissors over extended periods of time. If such workers grip scissors in the usual manner with the thumb extended through one handle ring and the middle finger extended through the other handle ring, the ability of the worker to perform tasks other than cutting with the scissors held hand is significantly impaired. For example, where their work requires them to grip or position articles intermittently, the scissors tend to restrict such operations. Though one can ordinarily still grip an article with the thumb and index finger extending through the handle rings of scissors, such may create a safety problem. In textile plants and wire mills the user's hands are frequently in close proximity with reels, spindles and the like that are rotating at high speeds. Were the scissors inadvertently to make contact with such machinery with two fingers locked to a common pair of scissors, severe injury could result. Nevertheless, to overcome this handicap and danger by discarding the scissors each time another operation is required, only to retake them upon its completion, creates an obvious inefficiency. Furthermore, use of the other hand is often unavailable as a solution to this problem since it may be otherwise occupied or engaged. In addition, the worker may be insufficiently ambidextrous to perform work well with that other hand.
For these reasons many industrial workers have tended to hold and operate scissors in a manner that is quite different from that used by the general public. Specifically, industrial workers often "palm" the scissors with the index or middle finger extended through one handle ring while the other handle ring is merely pressed between the thumb and palm. This grip provides the thumb and index finger with greater freedom to grip items other than the scissors as needed without having to release the scissors themselves. Furthermore, the hand is rendered less susceptible to injury with this grip should a force be suddenly applied to the scissors since the scissors are free to pivot about one finger or be pitched clear from the hand entirely. In this manner the worker can more readily alternate between cutting and gripping operations.
Unfortunately, the just-described palming method of holding and using scissors in industrial environments has frequently tended to produce some numbness or soreness in the hands of the users. An appreciation of a common cause for this may be readily gained from a brief examination of the anatomy of the human hand as shown in FIG. 4. Here the hand is seen to include a radial artery 10 and median nerve 12 that extend along the juncture of the thumb palmar area with the remaining portion of the palm in region 14 at the base of the thenar eminence muscle. A worker gripping a conventional pair of scissors in the just-described palming manner will therefore exert small area contact pressure against the radial artery and median nerve. This concentrated pressure upon the artery and nerve usually accounts for the soreness and numbness experienced by the workers. Nevertheless, they have typically tended to elect to accept this malady rather than to lose the efficiency which is gained by employing the palming manner of holding and operating scissors.
Accordingly, it is a general object of the present invention to provide improved scissors.
More specifically, it is an object of the invention to provide industrial scissors capable of being gripped for operation in such a manner as to provide increased freedom of movement of the thumb and index finger for gripping purposes.
Another object of the invention is to provide industrial scissors which may be gripped in such a manner as to lessen the danger of injury to the hand in the event an extraneous force is inadvertently applied to the scissors while gripped.
Another object of the invention is to provide industrial scissors which may be held in the palm of the hand and operated without exerting small area contact pressure on the palm.